Biden To Visit India for Strategic Talks

Jun. 24, 2013 - 05:47PM
|

NEW DELHI — US Vice President Joe Biden will visit India next month to continue strategic talks between India and the United States, said visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry’s comments came after the India-US Strategic Dialogue here June 24, co-chaired by Kerry and Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid.

On his June 23-25 maiden visit to India, Kerry led a delegation of energy and defense officials, including Ernest Moniz, the energy secretary, and US Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of Pacific Command. Kerry also met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The India-US Strategic Dialogue is a joint forum established in 2009 to discuss cooperation on bilateral and regional issues. The June 24 talks focused on Afghanistan after the US-led international forces begin to leave in 2014, and on a US-India civil nuclear deal, signed in 2008 but awaiting implementation because of sticky issues relating to a liability clause that US companies find difficult to implement because of fear of lawsuits.

Addressing a joint press conference after the dialogue, Khurshid told reporters that he had discussions with Kerry on global as well as other strategic issues.

Kerry described the relationship between India and the United States as “one of the defining relationships of the 21st century.”

The dialogue also focused on increasing joint development of high-tech defense projects with India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, said an Indian Ministry of External Affairs official.